The Jameson Raid was a botched raid against the South African Republic carried out by British colonial administrator Leander Starr Jameson, under the employment of Cecil Rhodes. It involved 500 British South Africa Company police launched from Rhodesia over the New Year weekend of 1895–96. Paul Kruger, for whom Rhodes had great personal hatred, was president of the South African Republic at the time. The raid was intended to trigger an uprising by the primarily British expatriate workers in the Transvaal but it failed. The workers were referred to as The Johannesburg Conspirators. They were expected to recruit an army and prepare for an insurrection; however, the raid was ineffective, and no uprising took place. The results included embarrassment of the British government; the replacement of Cecil Rhodes as prime minister of the Cape Colony; and the strengthening of Boer dominance of the Transvaal and its gold mines. Also, the withdrawal of so many fighting men left Rhodesia vulnerable, one factor that led just a couple of months later to the Second Matabele War. The raid was a contributory cause of the Second Boer War.
Cape Colony Soldiers charging the Boer Defenses at Doornkop on 1 January 1896
Beit, associate of Rhodes and privy to Jameson's plans, financed the revolutionists to the order of £400,000 and was subsequently censured in the House of Commons and British press.
Wernher, Beit's business partner, was not drawn into the investigation, and his role, at least in the raid's initial stages, remains unproven.
In the raid's aftermath Rhodes was severely censured and had to resign as chairman of the Chartered Company and Cape prime minister.
The South African Republic, also known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer republic in Southern Africa which existed from 1852 to 1902, when it was annexed into the British Empire as a result of the Second Boer War.
Coat of arms of the South African Republic displayed on Kruger's wagon
President Paul Kruger in 1898
Piet Cronjé's followers delivering up their rifles